The present invention relates to improvements made to water catchment devices (skimmers) at the surface of a basin, in particular to supply a water filtering system for the basin, and more specifically improvements made to devices of this type which are of a floating design.
The skimmers commonly used in conjunction with water basins such as swimming pools are maintained at a correct level relative to the water surface in the basin by attaching them, possibly adjustably, to a fixed element of the basin (for example a wall, ladder).
However, there is such a thing as a "free" skimmer, i.e. one which is not joined to a fixed element of the basin and which floats on the free surface of the water during normal operation. Since the skimmer is made from materials of a density higher than 1, on the one hand, and the body of the skimmer partially filled with water behaves like a hollow body on the other, it is the level of the water inside the body of the skimmer which determines the relative degree of rising and sinking vertical forces to which the skimmer is subjected and determines whether the skimmer is "buoyant" or "sinking" (or "skimming").
More specifically, the water level inside the skimmer body varies, in particular depending on the suction rate of the pump and disruptions affecting the intake of water to the skimmer body (for example extensive clogging of the filter basket, jamming of the floating dish above the water level, etc.).
If an imbalance occurs in the flow of water across the skimmer and the rate at which water flows by gravity through its inlet into the skimmer body is reduced or even halted (by an obstruction at the inlet screen, for example) and becomes lower than the rate at which water is sucked in by the pump, the skimmer body empties and the pump fails.